The Jewish Link of New Jersey and Gotham Burger would like to recognize 15-year-old Rebecca Malech as this week’s Sportstar of the Week. The Ma’ayanot freshman helped her team to a perfect 7-0 regular season and, although their run ended in the championship game, the future is bright for the Ma’ayanot Rapids. Noam Weinberger, one of the Hockey coaches at Ma’ayanot, told the JLNJ, “Rebecca is a highly motivated individual who always showed up early to practice to work on her skills and help set up. She would constantly ask the coaches how she can improve her skills and game play. Besides her natural skill, she has a ton of middos and always plays with class. She is a star already and will continue to be a star in the league. The most impressive thing about her was the fact [that] as a freshman, she played on the top line with our most experienced seniors/players and handled the pressure of the top line extremely well, often scoring crucial goals for us.”
Rebecca told us that her dad is her role model, teaching her everything she knows about sports. He encouraged her to always try her hardest and never give up; without his influence; she doubts she would be involved in sports today.
Rebecca’s favorite athlete is Stephan Curry; she admires his unselfish style. “He leads by example, showing his team it is better to play as a team than individually. This work ethic lead the Warriors to an NBA Championship victory. But even when he loses he holds his head high.”
Before home games, Rebecca plays the piano next to the gym and then listens to music in order to further psych herself up before warmups.
Rebecca’s earliest sports memory is playing hockey with plastic sticks in her grandmother’s basement with her older brothers Alex and Asher. She never won, but really enjoyed playing with them.
Her favorite sports memory was winning the hockey championship in seventh grade. It was the first championship she ever won. The previous season, her team lost in the championship game, so it was all the more rewarding to win this one.
When not playing hockey, basketball or softball, Rebecca likes to spend time with her friends and family. The best thing about being a sportstar, according to Rebecca, is being able to do something she loves while being part of a team and playing with exceptional people.
The Gotham Burger Sportstar of the Week will receive a $10 gift certificate to Gotham Burger. Please send nominees for next week’s Gotham Burger Sportstar of the Week to [email protected].
